Munitions



J. BUMILLER Feb. 26, 1963 MUNITIONS Filed March 21, 1960 lnvnfor JACQUESBUM/LLER B Wm WM.

Afforneys 3,078,800 MUNITIONS Jacques Bumiller, Valence, France,assignor to Societe de Prospection et dlnventions Techniques Spit,Bourgles-Valence, France Filed Mar. 21, 1960, Ser. No. 16,254 Claimspriority, application France Sept. 2, 1959 1 Claim. (Cl. 102-38) Thepresent invention relates to munitions and more particularly to thosefor use in power actuated tools or guns which drive, under the effect ofan explosive charge contained in a cartridge, a metal pin or the likeinto hard compact materials.

There have already been proposed munitions, in particular for said kindof gun, which comprise a cartridge whose case is of plastic material orhas a uniform and not very thick covering of plastic material.

The object of the invention is to obtain a perfect sealing orfluid-tightness between the munition and the loading chamber and an easyejection (automatic or otherwise) of the cartridge case after firing, inparticular in guns in which the loading chamber is formed in a barrelcarrier relative to which the barrel is capable of undergoing a slightrearward movement.

To this end, the loading chamber is slightly tapered and the munitionaccording to the invention is characterised in that it comprises theusual cartridge case (adapted to contain at least the powder charge andthe primer composition) and a throw-away cartridge carrier on the axisof which said case is disposed, said cartridge carrier, which isadvantageously of plastic material, having a tapered outer shape whichfits that of the loading chamber, the forward end of the cartridge casebeing adjacent the smaller end of the taper.

If the munition is pushed in to the end of the loading chamber of thegun, there is obtained a perfect sealing or fluid-tightness, owing tothe tapered shape and plasticity of the cartridge carrier. The ejectionof the latter out of the loading chamber (for example by a slightrearward movement of the barrel relative to the barrel carrier) iseffected very easily, again owing to the tapered shape.

According to another feature of the invention, the housing or cavityprovided in the tapered cartridge carrier for the cartridge casecomprises at least an expansion chamber arranged to be situated on theperiphery of the cartridge case.

In a preferred embodiment of the munition of the invention, the munitionhas the following features and combinations thereof:

The expansion chamber is annular and arranged to surround the cartridgecase;

The expansion chamber extends along a part of the length of thecartridge case;

Patented Feb. 26, 1963 The expansion chamber opens on to the forwardface of the cartridge carrier.

The accompanying drawing shows diagrammatically, on a large scale, alongitudinal sectional view of an embodiment of a cartridge carrier withits cartridge.

In this embodiment, the cartridge case 1, which has substantially acylindrical shape, is engaged in the cartridge carrier 2 of for exampleplastic material.

The cartridge carrier, having the form of an annular body open at itstwo ends, has, towards it front end 2b, a tapered or conical outer face2a for use with a gun whose loading chamber is tapered or conical.

Further, the cartridge case 1 is only held at its flanged rear part 1ain the cartridge carrier in which it is a force fit and an annularexpansion chamber 3 is formed in the cartridge carrier around thecartridge case 1, this expansion chamber being open at its forward end4, that is to say towards the front end 2b of the cartridge carrier.

With such an expansion chamber, the cartridge case is free to expandslightly at the moment of firing so as to fill said expansion chamber,which reduces the violence of the explosion.

It must be understood that the embodiment of the munition describedherein before and shown in the accompanying drawing, has been givenmerely by way of a non-limitative example and any modification of itsdetails can be made as do not depart from the scope of the invention asdefined in the appended claim.

What I claim is:

In the combination comprising a cartridge casing of substantiallycylindrical shape with a rim portion on one end thereof, a cartridgecarrier surrounding said cartridge casing, said cartridge carrier havingthe form of an annular body being open at both ends and tapered towardthe end of the casing opposite said rim portion, said cartridge carrierbeing of plastic and having an aperture extending throughout the lengththereof, said aperture at one end of said carrier being of a diameterequal to that of said cartridge casing, the diameter of the remainder ofsaid aperture being substantially greater than the diameter of saidcartridge casing, the surface of the larger diameter aperture beingsubstantially greater than the surface of the portion of the aperturethe diameter of which is equal to that of the cartridge casing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,517,702 B'rubaker Dec. 2, 1924 2,862,446 Ringdal Dec. 2, 19582,898,694 Senutovitch Aug. 11, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 469,800 France May29, 19 14

